unity-design team mailing list archive

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Sam Hulick wrote on 18/02/14 23:57:
> 
> From a design standpoint, I have to disagree with multi-color tabs.
> For Ubuntu it would be a step backwards, IMO, in trying to achieve
> a cleaner, more modern look, which I know is one of their goals
> lately.

It's a good exercise, whenever tempted to describe an interface as
"clean" or "modern", to try being more specific. ("Modern" in
particular is a kind of fallacious appeal to novelty.)

One specific problem with multi-colored tabs is that they would
often be the most colorful thing on the screen, while being one of the
least important things on the screen.

> My suggestion would be to thicken the borders and/or shadows 
> between tabs to make them more distinct. Or possibly dim all but 
> the selected tab. In your first screenshot, it's visually
> difficult to tell at a glance what my current tab is. There needs
> to be some way to call out that tab.

This is "Difficult to distinguish which tab is selected"
<http://launchpad.net/bugs/762349>. It's not a problem for Radiance,
where inactive tabs are darker. I don't know how it could be fixed for
Ambiance, where the active tab is already nearly black. Mockups welcome!

- -- 
mpt

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.14 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://www.enigmail.net/

iEYEARECAAYFAlMF5oEACgkQ6PUxNfU6ecqOoQCggtq0UP3mpsHSKzvtmW43Reb0
KKEAn1U1B/7+y8k4Scsaliv9rAV8Jc4e
=xS1S
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----